"Today marks a historic day for the Lviv region – the area has been cleansed of religious communities that are subordinate to the Moscow Patriarchate. Lviv has become the first region in Ukraine where there are no registered religious communities of the UOC-MP [Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate]," he stated.
Kozitsky noted that at the beginning of the Russian aggression against Ukraine in 2014, there were 66 religious communities of the UOC-MP operating in the region, which decreased to 54 by February 24, 2022. Since the onset of the full-scale invasion, half of these communities joined the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, while the remaining 27 ceased their activities "on their own accord."
"I sincerely hope that the religious communities of the Moscow Patriarchate in other regions of our state will not wait for the implementation of the legal norms regarding the protection of the constitutional order in the activities of religious organizations, but will finally sever ties with the structure of the bloody Moscow priests," Kozitsky emphasized.